Kali stirred. He was sore, and his head was pounding, throbbing, but aside from this, he felt okay. The passenger's side of the small car was completely crushed and caved in, paint peeling on the outside of it, and ice and glass were shattered and scattered all throughout. The floor of the vehicle was littered with shiny clear shards, and the snow outside had been filled with them. Kali brought a shaking hand to his face, pushing back the airbag that had exploded in front of him, touching his cold skin gently as if to prove that he was still alive. As if his breathing wasn't enough proof as is. His fingers were numb and trembling, his breathing shaking, his throat sore from his scream. His hair was a mess, blonde strands covering his eyesight which seemed blurry.

He remembered the poor worker that had been held up high by his truck, and Kali called out, "Hey! Help!"

With a pang of guilt, of hatred, of pity, a strong, defeating silence followed. Kali was weighed down by a sinking, sickening feeling twisting in his gut. He felt like he was going to throw up, his throat tightening, his mouth feeling dry. The small, bashed car was still pressed up against the large vehicle, which did not appear to have moved much, but there was a bit of chipping in the ice by its large tires, indicating it had shifted on impact. Kali unbuckled his seat belt with clumsy fingers and adjusted, trying to open the door. His whole body was aching with sore muscles. His whole body was aching as the adrenaline seeped out of him, leaving him feeling weak and lightweight and empty, as if he hadn't eaten all day. With some strength, he was able to open the door, and it busted open, allowing Kali to slide out of the vehicle and take a deep breath of cold, fresh air. It felt like icy water splashed to his face, and his once unfocused vision seemed to clarify. His legs were still weak and shaking, and he slipped straight to the ground onto his knees, taking several long minutes to sit and breath and shake off the fear, panic, and adrenaline. He was lucky to be alive, and now, he knew it. The cold from the ground seeped into his pants, and he soaked it in, taking in his cold, white surroundings, trying to ground himself and his jittered mind.

Hands trembling, and every step seeming weaker and more fragile than the last, Kali managed to shakily stand. The beaten car was used as support by his hands as he made his way around the back of it to look up at the tall metal ladder. The car was a burning cold to the tough as he pressed his palms against it. His eyes were following the ground, mapping every shaking step in his mind. Finally, after a few paces, he dared to look up, his eyes followed a long tower of zig-zagged metal sprouting from the worker's truck. The cup at the end of the large thing now housed no person. Curious, and rather frightened, Kali cautiously walked forward, careful not to slip on the icy road as he did so. He felt the dread forming in the back of his throat, twisting in his gut. His feet led him to the other end of the truck where a man laid sprawled on the road, having fallen almost 100 feet from the air, now laying lifeless in a pool of congealed scarlet.

Kali was going to be sick. He stepped off the road and threw up on the sidewalk. It was sour.

He had done this.

He'd killed yet another man.

How had he done this?

Kali was just a highschool boy, how had it all come to this? The panic set in, refusing to release his heart from its icy grip, and he fell to the ground, sobbing, unable to breath. He was utterly alone, and the darkness shrouded him, creeping in on him, suffocating him. His tears blurred his vision significantly, as if the battering, freezing winds did not already. Still, inhaling the icy air, he stood and breathed and pushed onwards. He dared not get in the vehicle again, but he would surely die if he stayed exposed in these increasingly violently cold conditions. Kali dared not admit that he had been so reckless, and this was all preventable, but he did acknowledge that perhaps he deserved the consequences of remaining exposed to the bitter cold elements. Perhaps after such a heinous act, he deserved to freeze to death.

Still, his brain would not so easily allow him to die, and his survival instincts pushed him away from the scene and into a nearby building: A fast-food restaurant which had locked doors but dispensable glass, easily broken using stones, heavy balls of ice, and hefty branches from breaking trees which were crushed beneath the weight of frozen water. Once the glass was shattered across the ground, Kali stepped right inside; it wasn't warm, but it was much better than being outside in the wind and dark, surrounded by ice and snow. He walked inside and sat, curled up underneath his jacket, on a padded booth seat to a table. He wished he had stayed home, even with his guilt. Tears ran, and he choked out a sob. His temples ached.

Not too far from where Kali was freezing inside that restaurant by the scene of the accident, a boy and a girl were searching desperately for him.

Brian and Neko first began to cautiously walk across the road to the marks in the ice where the car had been, holding on to one another for much needed support across the smooth, slick surface.

Neko explained, "He pulled up right here. His car was here, and now, it isn't." She shuddered with fear, walking past the area and towards the shattered store entrance.

"You don't think..." Brian whispered, clinging to her, arms intertwined with hers. He dared not finish his sentence, the suggestion that the man they'd killed had not been dead at all. Neko let out a low, shaky exhale as she neared just enough to see the lifeless body still on the floor of the store.

She spoke with unsettlement, "No, he's right there and definitely dead."

"Would he have had his keys on him?"

She considered, "Yes. He would have."

"So Kali..." Somehow, the idea of Kali running off was even worse.

Her face slowly went downturned with anger, hands slowly forming fists, and she spat, "So Kali ditched us!"

"Hang on, now-"

"He left us behind and took off running the moment he got a chance! He just left us behind!"

Brian tried to reason, "Now, does that really sound like something he would do?" Neither of them were convinced.

And she fought the urge to shove him, "It doesn't matter whether it does or not! Everyone always leaves. Everyone always does this. Everyone always lies."

"Hey," Brian tried his best to comfort her, struggling for a moment to find the right words, "We can't assume anything right now. We need to find him and hear his story. Maybe he's in trouble."

"Okay," She said, unconvinced, glaring at the floor still. He guided her away from the area, motioning to cracked tire tracks left in the ice from the small car, to which they both tenderly brightened. These tracks would lead them both straight to Kali, and then, they'd figure out what exactly had happened.

They walked close together, but with eyes far apart, searching in different directions in an attempt to cover more ground. Their feet shuffled across thick ice and clumpy, wet snow. The sky was black, the moon and stars slowly becoming obscured by fog and clouds heavy with ice and rain. The moonlight casted a subtle white glow over a few of the clouds overhead, making the scene feel ominous and cold. It was both. The wind howled in their ears, biting them with cold and turning them red.

Brian spoke with hesitance, "Do you think the freezing rain will ever stop? It rained again last night. We both heard it."

"I know," she said with a sigh. She was exhausted. "I'm sure it will."

They took turns calling out for Kali, every time with hesitance, as if something evil lurked in the shadows. The building casted long, dark shadows in alleys and across the snowy road and sidewalk. Thunder began to rumble low and menacingly in the distance, as if taunting them with the ice it threatened to bring. The black, bold clouds rolled in over the grey ones.

They walked, and walked, and walked. Their feet were sore as they shuffled across ice, through bitter cold snow, and against whipping, icy wind, following the two lines of tire tracks. The snow shimmered a dull, cool white as it reflected the moon. They were equally exhausted and equally scared. And, nervous. Stomachs churned with heavy, gut-wrenching anxiety, tempting them both to throw up. What had happened to their friend? Had he really left them? Anxiety-induced thoughts swirled in their heads. The worry and aching dread never ceased. After walking for several slow, silent, exhausting hours, Brian and Neko found themselves confused and torn, nearly delirious, eyeing two separate pairs of car tracks. They looked the same, but in opposite directions, on opposite sides of the road. They stood at a T in the road. The tracks they'd been following reached ahead and to the right, accompanied by the second set of tracks which ran from right all the way to the left.

Brian observed as the two stopped, "They're from the same car, and both fresh, too."

"No," Neko responded, crouching low and touching stiff finger tips to the tracks on the right side of the road. They were smoother, shinier, older. They'd been rained on and iced over. "These ones are older," she concluded with affirmation. "Probably from before it rained last night."

"The other ones are going left. They're from more recent," Brian said, then looked to Neko to confirm. She nodded, standing up and stepping a few paces, looking out and eyeing down the road with the fresh tracks. Buildings lined either side of the large highway: stores, homes, and lots. Neko eyed down the wide, snowy road, glancing at snow-covered rooftops, parking lots, and tall advertisement signs. Down the way, when her vision was blurrier and the white and the long shadows made it nearly impossible to see, she saw a figure. An outline of two large boxy shapes, one reaching to the sky in a thin black line against a deep blue-grey, misty and dark background. Neko could tell that the skies, despite being clouded and dark, has lightened ever so slightly, the moon moving higher and higher ever so slightly. Dawn would arrive soon. How long had they been walking?

Her eyes were heavy, shadowed and hardly able to stay open. Her movements were loose, words slightly slurred. The exhaustion and the cold slowed her down, numbing her limbs and making her clumsy, as if she was very lightly intoxicated. Still, it was frustrating.

Noticing her slow movements, and his own, Brian sighed, "Maybe we need to stop and sleep somewhere..." He eyed her both wearily and warily, worrying for her response and reaction. As per usual, she exploded, turning to him with a newfound energy and anger, no longer dulled and weighted by the need for rest and warmth.

In a fury, she neared him, "How dare you suggest such a stupid thing? What if he gets farther than he already is? We've already been walking so slow. We're so far behind as is! This could be the difference between life and death."

"Life and death for who? For us or for Kali?"

"For Kali!" She growled in frustration, hands in loose fists at her sides. She spun and turned away from Brian, not wanting to speak to him nor look at him any longer. Then, with force and passion, she continued forward with strong, wide strides, putting distance between her and Brian- and getting to Kali faster.

"We're going to die this way!" Brian desperately tried to reason, calling out after her, "I love Kali, too! But he has a car to stay warm, and we don't! We've been traveling at night when its coldest. You can feel yourself growing warm, growing dizzy, can't you? We're exhausted and cold. We have to rest. We're no good to him if we're dead or dying."

"I don't care!" She screamed back, continuing onwards, refusing to listen or change her mind. Brian grumbled and then reluctantly followed, shuffling his feet across the ice and snow. He sighed, eyelids heavy. Limbs heavy. Head heavy. Pounding, and dark. Everything was heavy with exhaustion.

Still, they walked.

"I think I see something ahead," Neko finally said to Brian. "I saw a glimpse a while back, but now I see it more."

He trotted up to beside her, eyeing, "What? Why didn't you say anything? What do you see?"

"I wasn't sure," she said, and Brian looked at her in a sense of bewilderment. Did she just sort-of admit that she was uncertain? "I can't tell what I see, but I have a feeling Kali is there."

"Are you sure?"

She cut him off, "I'm sure. Looks like cars, doesn't it?"

"What's the tall thing?"

"A bucket truck," she said.

"Oh, that makes sense. Working on the power lines?"

"Must be out of power, I bet some lines fell or broke due to the weight of the ice. Ice weighs literal tons when it sets on power lines!" She thought for a moment, then said, "Although, that probably hasn't happened yet, otherwise power would be out for good and there'd be no reason for them to send someone out. They're probably trying to chip away the ice to prevent the lines from failing."

Brian glanced at her as they walked, "Why would they risk sending someone out here to fix it?" It felt like a stupid question, but he wanted to hear her response.

"Heat," was all she said.

"Oh." It made sense to Brian then. Without power, homes and hospitals would go unheated. That could mean death- actual death, and for a lot of people. Suddenly, the realisation of this natural disaster sank in as a terrible, weighted gut feeling. He felt he was going to be sick. Lots of people likely died. The icy roads... considering then, he realised they'd past several parks cars that had ran off the road or stopped. He wondered if those people had found shelter or ever made it home. There must've been many car accidents. There must've been many deaths. Brian felt ill, his throat constricting. So much had been- or could have been- lost. This was a tragic event.

He made the decision to place one heavy foot in front of the other, and though wobbly and stiff, he continued to move forward with Neko at his side. He could see the boxy figures ahead with clarity as they neared them. The dawn peaked from behind the structures, turning the sky lighter and then a beautiful shade of tangerine. The sun showed it's face as a line of bright orange on the horizon, dowsing every structure and all of the snow in painted, dripping gold that sparkled on wet and icy surfaces. It was nearly glaring.

After so long of walking, they'd finally found it. The scene where a familiar car had collided into another, scattering glass across an ice-covered road. They both looked with wide, panicked eyes, like scared dogs that had been cornered and were about to be taken to the pound. The vehicle was familiar because it was the one that Kali had been driving. The paint gleamed under the early sun, distorting reflections where the metal had caved in.

Brian ran ahead first, the shock fading and the severity of the moment settling in. Adrenaline and fear rushed through him in nauseating pulses. He touched the cold metal of the car, glancing inside of it. Empty. Then, he skidded across the icy road to the other side of the two vehicles, finding a man sprawled on the white-doused pavement, stiff and still. Eyes flickered away from the dead man and a hand reached Brian's mouth as he leaned over. This couldn't have been worse. This couldn't have felt worse. He felt tears pool in his eyes, an ache in his stomach and a tightening of his throat. His jaws were clenched tightly together, his lips a thin, tight line on his face, not daring to move, to speak, or to open.

His mind dared not to formulate the thought, the question, that was riddled in his and Neko's minds.

Was Kali dead?

Neko desperately called out, her voice hitched and high with fear, "Kali? Kali!"

Brian followed suit, cupping hands around his mouth, "Kali!" Once, then twice, then a third time, his worried, strained voice echoing out, bouncing off of the snow and ice and buildings.

Finally, he heard a familiar voice, distant and coarse and broken, "Brian?"

"Kali!" Despite his quick billowing breath, his pounding heart and roaring blood, Brian seemed to beam and glow  at the sound of Kali's voice, and a weary smile creased his worried face. He ran with a cold stiffness towards the sound of the small voice.

"Brian?" It said again, coming clearly from a fast-food building that smelled faintly of grease and fries; but the cold numbed their noses and quenched any noticeable scents. It left only the strong wisp of ice, the all too familiar scent of cold and snow and barely breathing bodies. It was nostalgic in a way for all of them, reminding them each of the familiar stench from grade school as the classes ran outside for recess whenever it was snowy and cold out. They'd play and play and play, but it was too cold to stay out for long; still, with pink noses and ears and numb fingers, they would fall down the slides and rock on the swing sets. They had all gone to grade school separately and in different locations,  but despite all of them having individual experiences, they could connect with this single memory that all of them seemed to share silently. As Kali's head throbbed with pain and his fingers stung with frostbite, he thought only of those once peaceful elementary years, and the reek of the students as they all filed back into the building, bringing with them the scent of freezing cold, the breath of fresh air and the stench of body odor. While Kali had appreciated the cooler recesses, Brian had hated going to recess in those freezing temperatures, and had been so grateful when his family had moved to Florida. He had been the opposite of grateful whenever they'd moved to Nebraska, which was even colder than his previous home.

Brian leapt into the building through a shattered window, his feet crunching glass beneath them, glancing around in a frantic frenzy, eyes wide and white and face deeply red and lightly blue with freezing blood. His entire expression was slick with sweat that seemed to freeze as it touched the air. He was distraught with tremors, signifying he was much too wet and much too cold.

Before him, his eyes adjusted to the gleaming blue darkness and focused as best as they could on a thin, pale and pink patched boy. His hair was an orange-blonde, dimmed and diluted by the sunglasses-glow of the darkness and white snow around them. It shrouded everything, draping the scene, the furniture, and the tile floors and cabinets in a grey and blue watercolour. It turned all colours into pale blues, whites, and greys, darkening them in a mystical, nautical way.

Brian did not hesitate as he ran up to him. The world around him spun and time began to move quickly, his breathing hurried. He ran to Kali's side, instinctively wrapping quaking arms around him like a mother coddling her child. Kali melted into what little warmth and immense comfort Brian's own aching body had to offer. Like shields, they cupped and protected one another. Then, hurriedly, Brian called for Neko with a shaking, hoarse voice. She could not arrive fast enough, and they heard her behind them before they saw her, her loud echoing footsteps, skidding into the room like an old dog struggling to stand on smooth wood floors. Brian could practically hear her claws clicking on the tile floors as she scrambled and slipped with a passionate intensity, a need and desire to bring them to safety and to reunite with her friend. There she swept like fire in a dead forest, consuming all in its path with ease and ferocity and swiftness. Kali fell into her arms just as he did to Brian's, nearly crying with the joy of seeing them both once again. Everything that had built up had suddenly spilled from his eyes as tears; his murders, his mistakes, his parents, his abandonment of his friends. His grief, his guilt, his intense, earth-shaking fear.

Pale arms in pale arms, and somehow sputtered a warmth. But then, a plan needed to be made.

Brian spoke first, his voice softer than Kali had remembered, "What now?" The three piled into the booth together, huddling for warmth to no avail. The bitter cold consumed them angrily, burning their numbed skin.

"The bucket truck," Neko said. She also seemed quieter than normal, though no less fiery; and yet, added to her spice was a tenderness that Kali had never noticed before. "I'm sure it still runs. Maybe we can drive it somewhere."

"In this weather?" Brian asked, sceptical, "No, no, its far too large. It would tip over."

Neko then, "No, it wouldn't. The worker had to of gotten it out this far somehow. And either way, there is heat in it." The three all eyed each other with an understanding silence to achieve a mission's goal; and then, they helped each other up with a cold stiffness from aching, numb limbs, walking through the restaurant and crunching on the clear broken glass on the tiles underfoot. They all walked together, Kali in the middle being supported by Neko and Brian, his legs seeming to not work quite right with the freezing temperatures; his blood itself seemed to be frozen, as if his bones could shatter to a gentle touch.